SCRC News and Notes

In 1978, the National Education Association sent a task force to Puerto Rico to investigate the state of the island's education system. One year later they published a book titled Puerto Rico: Tragedy in the Schools. The book is a collection of powerfully sad photographs that capture the effects of neglect and poverty. A small selection of the photographs can be found here. There is also a narrative that recounts the personnel and political problems that accompany, and sometimes cause the deterioration seen in the images. The book was given to Gelman Library Special Collections by the NEA and has recently been added to the Library catalog. Anyone wishing to see more photographs or read about the task force's findings can come to the Special Collections Reading Room, located on the 7th floor of Gelman Library.

Gelman Library is pleased to announce the opening on February 11 of "Paper Window: An Exhibit of Artists' Books from the Corcoran Art and Design Collection," featuring rare and one-of-a-kind handmade artists' books on loan from Gelman Special Collections. Come join the opening reception at the Brady Gallery, in conjunction with the opening of "Luminaries: Portraits from the GW Permanent Collection."

Gelman's Special Collections is a go-to source for DC history. Recently, WAMU radio reporter Jacob Fenston came by our reading room for some background info and vintage audio for this week's Metro Connection feature: The 51st State, Or The Last Colony? Listen to his piece on Home Rule with Eleanor Holmes Norton, featuring a brief voter registration jingle and a clip of D.C.’s first delegate to Congress Walter Fauntroy proclaiming himself the "baddest dude on Capitol Hill."

The I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection of the George Washington University Libraries is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2014-2015 Kiev Senior Research Fellowship. Awarded every two years, the Fellowship provides a stipend for a graduate, post-graduate, or independent scholar to conduct research using the Kiev Judaica Collection.

The Senior Fellowship has been awarded this year to Dr. Laura Tomes, a director at Hillel International, who will exploit the historical and bibliographic materials of the Kiev Collection towards her book-length study of Sabbath schools and Reform Jewish education in America between 1873 and 1923. Dr. Tomes holds degrees in theology and Jewish studies from Oxford and a doctorate in religious studies from Georgetown University.

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to enhance my research on the development of pedagogies in American Jewish education, and I look forward to using the extensive resources of the Kiev Collection,” said Dr. Tomes, who will be taking up her Fellowship in the new year.

This award marks the third iteration of the Kiev Fellowships. The first Senior Fellowship was held by Dr. Jonathan Skolnik, Assistant Professor of German at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, whose subsequent book, Jewish pasts, German fictions: history, memory, and minority culture in Germany, 1824-1955, was published this year by Stanford University Press. The second Senior Fellow was Dr. Barry Trachtenberg, director of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of Albany, State University of New York. Prof. Trachtenberg
advanced his research on the Algemeyne Entsiklopedye, the first comprehensive encyclopedia in Yiddish, launched in Berlin in 1932 on the eve of the Nazi period.

Established by Dr. Ari and Phyllis Kiev in 1996, the Kiev Judaica Collection is based on the private library of Dr. Kiev’s father, Rabbi Dr. I. Edward Kiev (1905-1975), one of the preeminent Judaica librarians of the 20th century. Housed since 1998 in the Kiev Room of the Gelman Library, the collection contains more than 28,000 volumes, along with Jewish graphic art, archives, recorded music, ephemera, artifacts and ritual objects.

There are three new series in the NEA Collection. All three series contain moving image and audio recordings produced or held by the National Education Association between 1938 and 2011. Appropriately, the series belong to the NEA Film, Audio and Video Collection. The series are: Conventions; Educational Material; and Promotional Material. The Convention series contains recordings from various conventions, conferences and workshops. Most of these recordings are from NEA conventions, the Annual Meeting/Representative Assembly prominent among them. Included on the recordings are prominent speakers and speeches, individual sessions, workshops, interviews and highlights. The Educational Materials series contains recordings of material intended to educate NEA members, prospective teachers, other educators, and the general public on diverse topics such as classroom management techniques, personal safety, identifying child abuse, legal and policy advice, and guidelines for using new technology. The Promotional Materials series contains recordings intended to promote the message, the accomplishments, the needs and the image of the National Education Association, its affiliates, the education profession and political allies.

All three series contain a variety of formats. Although Special Collections provides equipment to watch and listen to many formats, some of the recordings cannot be played at this time. The finding aid can be found here. Attached to each item in the finding aid is a Technical Requirements Note. This note will help Special Collections determine if the material can be played or digitized in-house.

The old Allen Lee Hotel in Foggy Bottom is getting a major facelift, and WAMU's Rebecca Sheir came by Gelman Special Collections to learn about the building's history with GW's own Professor Chris Klemek. Built as the Llewellyn apartments at the turn of the century, the building at 2224 F St, NW, later became a low-budget hotel and is now slated to become DC's first "pod" hotel with tiny rooms and tiny rates, tagline "Hotel Hive: Buzz More, Spend Less." Listen in as Rebecca Sheir and Chris Klemek browse Special Collections to delve into the hotel's past on WAMU's Metro Connection. And then browse the maps and directories of the site they used on the Digital DC website, a project designed by Klemek, his students, and Special Collections.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt was designed to foster healing, heighten awareness, and inspire action in the age of AIDS. The mission began in San Francisco in 1987 with the creation of the NAMES Project Foundation. The quilt was first displayed on the National Mall in Washington, DC in 1987 before traveling on a 20-city tour to raise money for AIDS service organizations. By 1992, it included over 23,000 panels from around the world, and the members of the NAMES Project even marched in President Clinton's 1993 Inaugural Parade. Today the AIDS Quilt serves as a powerful reminder of life, loss, and community in the struggle against AIDS.

The 1993 National Education Association Representative Assembly (RA) took place in San Francisco, the birthplace of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project. In order to honor educators affected by AIDS, NEA President Keith Geiger introduced Anthony Turner, the Executive Director of the NAMES Project, who spoke about the importance of educating children about AIDS and remembering those that had passed away. The RA featured a tribute video to those NEA members that had died from AIDS in previous years. This video profiles the creation of teachers’ panels and testimonials from those whose lives they had influenced through education. The video is now housed in Gelman Special Collections as part of the NEA collection and can be found in box 3989 of the Film, Audio and Video Collection.

Are you a fan of D.C.'s homegrown hardcore punk scene, or the late great Chuck Brown? Come to the 7th floor of Gelman to see the exhibit "Hear in DC: Vernacular Music in the Nation's Capital," featuring historic photos, LPs, and promotional materials for bands that got their start in D.C. The exhibit includes folk, blues, bluegrass, punk, and go-go musicians, featuring items from performers such as Mississippi John Hurt, Flatt and Scruggs, and Fugazi, all part of the new D.C. Vernacular Music Archive at GW.

Special Collections is pleased to announce the newest issue of the local online poetry journal Beltway Poetry Quarterly, A Splendid Wake. GW Special Collections has been documenting the D.C. poetry scene for 30 years as part our Washington Writers' Archive, and we also now partner with the local poetry community to host the the wiki DC Poetry: A Splendid Wake, an encyclopedia of DC poets and poetry.